Out of the Looking Glass
by Mikauzoran
Summary: Kaito knew for sure that he was going crazy when the mirror started talking to him. – What will Kaito and Conan do when their reflections come to life after receiving a static shock from an ancient gemstone at a heist? What about when they come out of the looking glass and take on a life of their own?


Mikau: Hi everyone! Thanks for taking a look at this. This is actually my entry for Poirot Café's writing contest, "Seeking Symmetry". Voting is open now. Check it out! Anyway, I wrote this last minute so that we would have enough entries to hold a vote. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, there would be more twincest in this show. ^.^;

…

Out of the Looking Glass

Kaito knew for sure that he was going crazy when the mirror started talking to him.

"You're looking rather pathetic today, Kai-chan," the image of Kid reflected in the mirror above the bathroom sink snickered at him as Kaito took off his shirt (in order to check the bandages on the newest addition to his collection of bullet wounds).

Kaito blinked, staring owlishly.

This couldn't be right. The mirror was supposed to be showing a pajama-clad Kuroba Kaito with terrible bedhead and nice abs, but…instead it was Kid, tuxedo and all.

"The hell?" Kaito whispered, rubbing his eyes. Maybe he was still dreaming.

"You're the one that looks like hell," Kid chuckled, smiling charmingly. "Now hurry up and brush your teeth. Nakamori-chan is going to be here to pick you up for school in fifteen minutes, and it's not polite to keep a lady waiting."

Kaito was sincerely torn between screaming and commenting snarkily that Aoko was no lady.

Instead, he grabbed his shirt, walked right out of the bathroom, and went back to sleep…until fifteen minutes later when Aoko really did barge in to drag him to class.

Kaito, still groggy on painkillers, forgot about that morning's weirdness until he caught sight of his reflection in the window pane in homeroom. He nearly yelped in alarm at the sight of Kid sitting in his desk next to Aoko.

Kid wiggled his fingers at Kaito, smiling like a fat cat on a satin pillow.

Kaito cast a furtive glance around, trying to discern whether anyone else had noticed the internationally wanted criminal reflected in the window. So far so good it seemed, though it was best not to chance it. Kaito excused himself to the nurse's office but made a pit stop in the bathroom first to stare disbelievingly at his reflection in the mirror. Only it was still Kid, still smiling like the Cheshire Cat.

Kaito reached up to touch his face. Kid in the mirror didn't, only smiled in that disquieting way that usually annoyed the tar out of the Taskforce.

"What the hell?" Kaito repeated in a whisper. "What _are_ you?"

"More polite than you," Kid sniffed indignantly as he feigned bruised feelings. And then the thief did a one-eighty, faking tears and heartbreak as he whimpered, "Don't tell me you've forgotten about me, Kai-chan!"

Kaito took a minute to stare and contemplate before he stepped back and mumbled, puzzled beyond all belief, "…You're me…but you're talking on your own, and you're not dressed like me."

"Correction," Kid sang happily. "I _was_ you. Now I'm _me_."

Kaito mentally went over his options and reasoned that he could either take this all in stride and maybe get some answers or freak out and accomplish nothing. This wasn't the first time that something completely outlandish and bizarre had happened to him (please refer to the crazy witch in his life, the shrunken detective out to take his head off with a super-powered soccer ball, and the homicidal robot clone that had almost ruined/ended his life…. And he hadn't even gotten to the freaky little voyeuristic eye robot monsters that had relentlessly dogged him all over Tokyo that one time…and then there was the fiendish syndicate that had killed his father over a rock that supposedly granted immortality). Kaito was mentally equipped to deal with this level of crazy. If his reflection wanted to start cosplaying as his alter ego and chatting him up, that was fine. Bring it on. Kaito would get to the bottom of this and put an end to it.

"When did you stop being me and become ' _you_ '?" Kaito tried experimentally, leaning up against one of the bathroom stalls, trying to look nonchalant.

"Last night," Kid replied promptly.

Kaito bit his lip and thought hard about what had happened last night at the heist. It had been pretty much business as usual until…until he was up on the roof and Tantei-kun snuck up on him just as Kaito was about to check the emerald.

Thankfully, Kaito realized he had company in time to dodge the deadly tranquilizer dart. Regrettably, the follow up with the equally deadly soccer ball had clipped Kaito in the arm, sending the emerald flying.

Both Kaito and Conan dove for the jewel as it clattered to the floor, skidding to a stop in front of the cooling unit. They crashed into one another and struggled, one of Kaito's smoke bombs accidentally going off as they wrestled for the gem. It left them gropping blindly in the cloud of smoke, coughing and hacking as they fumbled desperately.

They managed to lay hands on the coveted jewel at the same time, and then almost let go of it just as soon as they did. Both detective and thief were each zapped by the emerald as if by electric shock from a door handle on a winter's day.

More surprised than Kaito, Conan faltered momentarily, letting go.

That was all Kaito needed. He grabbed the gem and fled, diving off the roof with it clutched firmly in hand…only to get shot at by the Organization's goons, clipped once more in the same arm that Tantei-kun had skimmed with the soccer ball.

The following morning there was a Kid cosplayer in his mirror. This smelled of magical gemstone, but…there wasn't _actually_ such a thing as a jewel with magic powers, was there? I mean, Kaito had always gone after Pandora never fully expecting to actually find anything, but he had searched simply because the men who had killed his father were looking, and if it really did exist, he wanted to be the one to find it first. But he'd never believed that he really _would_ , you know?

"So…this is because of that emerald…The Stone of Duplicity?" Kaito gulped, gawking as his reflection started snacking on pocky…that had come from _where_ exactly?

Kid nodded cheerily. "Now he gets it."

"Really, I don't," Kaito muttered, scratching his head. "How I get rid of you is the important thing to understand, though."

Kid froze, pocky dangling from his mouth. He gasped, looking horrified at Kaito. "You mean you're going to kill me?! I thought you didn't like violence! And doesn't the thought of killing someone make you sick?! You don't like death and murder and fish and all that, remember?!"

Kaito tried to shush Kid as the image in the mirror howled in terror. "Shut up," Kaito hissed. "Someone's going to hear you!"

"Let them hear! I'm about to be murdered!" Kid shrieked.

"We're both gonna be taken to a research lab and experimented on if you don't be quiet," Kaito retorted sullenly, cursing his luck not for the first or last time.

"Oh, other people can't hear me or see me," Kid finally confessed with a snort. "You don't have to worry about being found out, so it doesn't matter how loud I scream."

Kaito blinked, feeling a little stupid and immensely relieved simultaneously. "Oh…. Good," he replied dumbly…and then recommenced staring at Kid because he really had no idea what else he was supposed to do. "…So…"

"So?" Kid echoed, going back to the pocky.

Kaito frowned.

Kid munched.

"Can I have one of those?" Kaito sighed.

Kid blinked, looked down at his pocky, and then held out a stick.

Kaito experimentally reached out towards the mirror to see if he could take the proffered sweet, but his fingers only made it as far as the decidedly solid surface of the glass.

"Guess not," Kid quietly replied, looking slightly disappointed at the barrier between them. "Not yet, anyway."

Kaito stiffened, the hair on his arms standing up. "' _Yet_ '?" he stressed. "Do you eventually plan on coming out of there?"

Kid nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. Eventually. In a few weeks maybe. Maybe sooner, if I'm ready."

Kaito gulped, mind spinning uselessly like the wheels of a car stuck in the mud. "How? Why? I mean…how is that possible?"

Kid shrugged. "I'm a doppelganger, a body double. It's what I do. I take your place."

"You'll forgive me if I say I'm still occupying it," Kaito snarled. "I'd had enough of weirdo clones trying to replace me with that robot incident. _I'm_ me, and I'm the only me this world needs, so if you think I'm just gonna let you steal my place, you've got another thing coming, you—"

"—Not like that," Kid assured, laughing sheepishly as he shook his head and waved his arms in a gesture meant to broadcast that he was harmless and had no intention of making trouble. "I'm not here to take your place _from_ you, but more like…take your place _for_ you."

It was apparent from the befuddled look on Kaito's face that he didn't understand what difference the preposition made.

"Look," Kid sighed. "The Stone of Duplicity originally comes from Europe, right? You remember when you researched it that it was a family heirloom among the nobles?"

Kaito nodded, crossing his arms as he listened. He still didn't trust this bizarre mirror creature.

"Well, the jewel was used by those nobles to escape death, like when Marie Antoinette was executed or Anne Boleyn. Whenever the master is in danger, the doppelganger takes his or her place. My job is to take your place for you," Kid explained.

Kaito took a step back in shock, considering the historical implications of what the doppelganger was telling him. Three minutes later once he'd sifted through his incredulity and awe, he opened his mouth and replied, "I don't need anything like that."

"Don't you?" Kid challenged…only he said it kindly, not insolently. "It seems to me that you could use a body double, Kai-chan. Someone to take over this long, dangerous quest for you, maybe? So that you can go back to your normal life…with Nakamori-chan?"

Kaito swallowed hard. That… _that_ was tempting. If he didn't have to be Kid anymore, if he could just be himself—no secrets, no danger… God, wouldn't he love that?

But at the same time, it would be giving up a part of himself…a part that connected him to his father. And Kaito wasn't the kind of person that left his mess for someone else to clean up. Being Kid and finding Pandora was _his_ mission. This was his job, and he was going to do it himself.

"I couldn't let you do that," he stated with finality.

A stormy look came over Kid's face. "But…then…why do I exist? Would you really take away my purpose in life?" The doppelganger looked hurt…and scared. "If I don't have a purpose…then…why am I here?"

Kaito's features once more twisted into a frown of contemplation. "Let me get this straight. You're here to stand in for me when I need you, right?"

Kid nodded, looking utterly dejected.

"And there's no way to deactivate you, is there?" Kaito checked, not believing for a minute that Kid would tell him, even if there were.

Kid screwed his eyes shut as he whispered, "There is."

"There is?" Kaito's eyelids fluttered rapidly in absolute astonishment.

Kid gave a half-hearted nod. "I'll tell you…if you really want to get rid of me. Though, I guess it would be better to die now than to live without a purpose."

Kaito pursed his lips as it finally dawned upon him that this doppelganger, regardless of how it came into existence, was a living being. If he let it be, it was going to come out of the mirror and be a living, breathing, flesh and blood human being just like he himself was. And that would be problematic in its own ways when it came to that, but…could Kaito really snuff out another life, even if it was a little different from his own?

No. He wasn't that kind of person. Kid hadn't done anything wrong. It wasn't _his_ fault that the gem made him. Speaking of which…

"How did you come into being, anyway? Do you know? I suppose it was when I felt the rock shock me, but…why?"

"Because you were in danger. That's what the stone reacts to." Kid shrugged, still looking miserable.

Suddenly a thought struck Kaito like a safe falling out of a window. "Tantei-kun was holding on to the jewel too."

Kid shrugged apathetically. What did that matter when he was going to die without ever getting the chance to really live and be useful?

"What if the same thing happened to him? What if he's got a doppelganger too?!" The thought of two Tantei-kuns chasing after him made Kaito want to throw up…and then buy protective gear for his next heist. He was gonna need padding and a cup or something if there were going to be two munchkins pelting him with turbo kick soccer balls from now on.

Then again, whereas Kaito dealt with magic and aliens and the like on a regular basis, Tantei-kun was a very logical, anti-supernatural person. His brain would probably explode when his reflection started talking at him.

"We should probably go check on him, make sure he hasn't checked himself into a sanitarium or anything," Kaito sighed.

"We?" Kid sniffed. "You're taking me with you? Why? You're just going to get rid of me, aren't you? Why wait? Do it now and put me out of my misery before you go. I don't want to go on like this just waiting for the axe to fall."

Kaito pursed his lips. Furrowing his brow and taking a deep breath, he announced, "I'm not going to kill you, Kid. I honestly don't know how we're going to make this all work, but we'll figure it out later. I'll let you help me with the Kid stuff, so you can stop being all mopey and depressed. I'm going to keep you."

Kid's face instantly lit up, and he went back to happily chomping on his pocky (this time almond flavored). "I won't let you down, Kai-chan!" he sang like a canary.

…

Kid was thankfully well-behaved during school that day; Kaito, however, was not. He swapped Aoko's uniform with one of the guy's, leaving poor Yukimura in Aoko's sailor outfit. During second period History he made cryptic messages appear in hieroglyphs on the board, and throughout third period English he periodically made Hakuba's textbook disappear…only to reappear on top of some unsuspecting pupil's head or down one of the student's pants or under one of their classmate's shirts.

For the grand finale, Kaito somehow managed to change everyone's school uniforms into those from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Aoko was, of course, the titular character with Keiko as Yuki the alien, Akako as Koizumi the esper, Kaito himself as Kyon, and poor unfortunate Hakuba as Asahina-san the time traveler. He looked rather silly with those giant fake breasts and the little miniskirt. Some of the guys took pictures that were later uploaded to Facebook.

Needless to say, Kaito fled the scene afterwards, laughing his fool head off.

After school he dropped by his house to disguise before heading over to Beika in hopes of checking in on his favorite shrunken detective.

Said detective was just finishing up at a crime scene on his way home from school.

" _Typical. Can this guy go just one day without tripping over a corpse? I thought that_ I _was cursed, but…"_

The magician waited until his target parted ways with the Shounen Tanteidan, and Kaito approached Conan just as he was coming up on the sushi place next door to Poirot.

"Having any issues with your mirror lately?" Kaito asked as he walked past the shrunken teen.

Conan froze mid-step and spun around, turbo kick shoes at the ready.

Kaito held up his hands and smiled in what he hoped was a disarming fashion. "Take it easy, Tantei-kun…. I am too," he confessed softly. "Having issues with my reflection giving me lip, that is. Can we talk?"

" _Kid_ ," Conan hissed under his breath and glared at the disguised thief, but after grumbling something rude he motioned for Kaito to follow him into Poirot.

They took a seat at one of the corner booths away from the rest of the patrons and ordered an iced coffee and a chocolate milk.

Conan frowned at his dining companion. "What are you? A little kid?"

Kaito turned up his nose and snorted, "I like chocolate milk. It's refreshing, and I've had a looong day, so _there_. And you're one to talk, ordering coffee. What are you, like, a forty year-old man stuck inside the body of a child?"

"Sometimes it seems like it, doesn't it?" Azusa chimed in cheerily, setting down their drinks with a gentle smile. "Conan-kun can be so mature sometimes, but deep down he really is a little kid."

Azusa walked away, leaving silence in her wake.

And then Kaito giggled at the flabbergasted look on Conan's face.

"Oh, shut up," Conan growled. "Just tell me what you know about this doppelganger nonsense already. Mine says he doesn't know everything he should because I let go of the jewel too soon, before everything could transfer."

Kaito gave his rival a quick summary of everything his own doppelganger had told him about the history of the Stone of Duplicity and what that meant for them personally. He did so professionally, all joking aside because he remembered what a mess he had been that morning before all of the weirdness had been explained to him. He could imagine how the doubter-of-all-things-supernatural, Kudo Shinichi, might be having an exceptionally hard time with all this especially when his double didn't have all of the facts.

Conan sat staring stoically with his arms crossed until Kaito got to the part about the doppelgangers eventually assuming a corporeal form so that they could assist their masters…typically doing things like going to the chopping block in said master's place.

The detective's face turned a decidedly unattractive sallow hue, and even Conan's lips lost their color.

His voice trembled as he asked, "It's…going to come out? And…and be…like…a real person? That other people can see?"

Kaito nodded. "Yeah. In the next couple weeks there's going to be two little Tantei-kuns running around, giving me hell." Kaito laughed lightheartedly for show, but, honestly, he was a little worried about the increase in competition. Thankfully he'd have his own backup, but…it still worried him.

There appeared to be a lump caught in the young detective's throat, but he eventually managed to swallow and remark in a weak, shaking voice that, "My doppelganger isn't Edogawa Conan."

Kaito blinked. It took a minute for it to click, but he finally whispered in exasperation, "Meitantei?! It's a copy of Meitantei?! Holy…. And what the hell are you going to do with him?"

Conan shook his head, hunching his shoulders and trying to disappear into his clothing like a turtle into its shell. He averted his eyes as he mumbled, "Well, what are you going to do with yours? Are you just going to let him run free?" Conan challenged.

Kaito shrugged. "I don't know yet. I don't want to keep him under house arrest, but…I know what you mean. He can't just walk around without a disguise or something."

"At least yours will be able to disguise. Mine…well…at least Ran will be happy to have him home at last. She's been waiting a whole year, so…at least she'll be happy with him." Conan reached out and grabbed his iced coffee, taking an angry, greedy pull from his straw.

Kaito's mouth dropped open. "Wait. Hold on. You don't mean you're going to let him take your place, do you?"

Conan shrugged in lieu of an answer.

"You can't!" Kaito gasped.

"Why not?" Conan muttered sullenly.

"You just can't!" Kaito almost stamped his foot like a fuming child. "It's not right. _You're_ you, and no one but you has any right to take that place."

Conan shook his head, eyes losing their spirit. He was beginning to look like a hollow shell. "It's been a year, and I'm not really any closer to being me again than I was at the start. Even if I do manage to come back within the next six months or so, that's not a realistic timeline within which to take down the Organization. I wouldn't be able to live freely as Shinichi. I'll still be in danger until I know that they're not after me…and the people I love. And I'm starting to doubt that I'll ever be able to be me. The research into the cure isn't going well. Rather than gaining time back in my own body, the experimental antidotes are losing their effectiveness faster and faster. I'm starting to think that I'm just going to stay stuck like this forever. If an antidote is ever made, it will probably be too late. It's only been a year, and Kudo Shinichi has already started to lose his place. It won't be so simple to just step back into life as I left it. Things have changed."

Kaito wanted to argue with his rival, but…Shinichi's arguments were mostly sensible, his reasoning sound. Kaito highly doubted that there was anything he could say that would make the detective change his mind or even just feel a little better.

"At least this way Ran will be happy," Conan repeated. "This way she gets the guy she likes back and she gets to keep her little brother too. I think…I think I can be okay like this if it means Ran will stop crying at night when she thinks no one can hear her."

Kaito nodded, knowing that he'd bare anything if it meant Aoko wouldn't have to cry anymore.

But then a thought occurred to Kaito. He pursed his lips before he hesitantly confessed, "You know…actually, my doppelganger said that there was a way to get rid of them…if you really didn't want to go through with it." Kaito squirmed during the uncomfortable silence that followed.

Conan had scrunched up his face in thought. From time to time he glanced at the window pane beside them, probably taking note of something that his own reflection was saying.

At the end of a minute, finally Conan replied, "No. He's a sentient being. He's got his own mind, his own thoughts, his own feelings. He may be unconventional, but…"

"Yeah," Kaito sighed. "I thought the same thing about mine. I guess…things will work out somehow, but… Look, Tantei-kun, if you ever need to talk with someone…if things get rough for you, letting that guy take over and everything…"

Kaito bit his lip as he grabbed a napkin and scribbled down the number to his Kid phone. He wordlessly slid the napkin across the table to Conan.

The boy blinked as his brain slowly processed the olive branch that Kid had just held out to him. "Thanks," he mumbled. And then a little stronger: "Thank you." as a faint smile came to the corners of his lips.

"Call. _Anytime_ ," Kaito insisted. "We're in this together."

…

Two weeks later, Kaito woke up to find a not-so-strange man in his bed. "Kid" was now quite solid, and Kaito wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do about all this just yet. He started off by going back to sleep, opting to deal with it later when it was a suitable hour of the day…like noon.

"Kid", fortunately, was apt at disguise, so with a quick dye job and some small alterations, he was able to pass himself off as Kaito's cousin from France whose parents had just died, leaving the poor "Kai" to live with his cousin in Japan.

"I think it's a good, solid backstory," Kai chuckled in glee, just excited to be alive. "A real tearjerker. They'll eat it right up."

Kaito shook his head. "That sounds exactly like something I would come up with. But fine. It's fine. Just…why go with the name 'Kai'? Isn't there something else you'd rather go by?"

Kai shook his head right back at Kaito. "No. This way I'm Kai Two. Get it?"

Kaito had to hold back a chuckle. Was Kaito really like that?

They had a bit of a rough start, often stepping on each other's toes both literally and figuratively. Even though Kai did tend to favor Kid's charms, manners, and airs, he really was Kaito at heart, and his prankster side often showed itself. Still, they fell into a rhythm by the end of their second week together, and things worked themselves out just fine, the two taking to each other like long-lost brothers.

Kaito really did enjoy the company. He'd lived alone for the most part after his father's death, so having someone else around to hang out with, make dinner with, and even just to welcome him home and see him off…it was a _nice_ change. He quickly found himself how he had ever done without his double.

…

Around that same time, Kudo Shinichi came back to town…just not quite the same as when he'd left, but Mouri Ran was taking those changes in stride and embracing the man Shinichi had become…again, both literally and figuratively. They made a cute couple…a tad clingy, but… Conan had called and told Kaito about it…and asked if Kaito were up for getting some coffee together.

"It's good to see her smile," Conan reported, not looking half as miserable as Kaito expected. "Even though I wish it could have been _me_ , but…he's good to her. I think something got messed up in the transfer when I let go too soon, though. He's different from me. He's not…he's not as haughty, and he doesn't drop everything at the sound of a scream. He's a very good detective, but…it's not as important to him as it is to me. I think he got all of my good qualities but missed some of my most glaring flaws. It's good. They're happy."

"But what are _you_ going to do now?" Kaito pressed gingerly. "Do you have any plans for yourself?"

Conan nodded resolutely. "Start over from scratch. I'm only eight. I can start again and hopefully become a better person this time around."

"I think you were pretty good last go round," Kaito encouraged gently. "I'm really glad that you're doing so well with all of this, though."

Conan shrugged and even managed to smile. "Sometimes it's _bad_ , but…I see a lot of bad stuff every day, and when I compare my lot in life to the horrors I see…most days I'm extremely thankful that I have things as good as I do."

"You're a saint, Kudo," Kaito sighed, shaking his head fondly.

Conan rolled his eyes. "I'm as bad as the next human being. I've just been granted the gift of learning from other people's mistakes."

Kaito grimaced. "I think I skipped that day when they were handing that out."

…

A few weeks turned into a few months, and Kaito and Kai were having a blast with this whole doppelganger thing. It was super awesome for pranking purposes, and it made heists a breeze…except for when "Tantei-kun squared" were in attendance. Those nights were a royal pain in the you know where.

But most of the time it made life easier having an extra phantom thief around. Kaito had more free time now that Kai and he could take turns doing easier heists. Kaito had actually gone with Aoko, Hakuba, and Keiko a few times and stood right beside the flummoxed Brit for the entire night. It was most enjoyable, screwing with his frienemy's head.

And the duo were definitely covering more ground. For the first time, Kaito felt like they were making tangible progress. More jewels were getting checked faster, they were keeping the Taskforce plus detectives on their toes, and there had been fewer injuries with the two of them working together.

…

One night late that year in December, they were checking out a possible Pandora suspect when things went sideways.

Kaito, overconfident and not expecting Nakamori to see through the dummy for once, was not giving it his all. He'd grown a little _too_ reliant on Kai, and, not thinking, accidentally made a wrong turn, putting him right into the path of Hakuba.

With Kai's help and some misdirection, he broke away from the blonde, but the thief duo picked up a Tantei-kun bogey on their way to the roof.

In his haste to get away, Kaito didn't properly scan the area, so he completely missed the gunmen on the opposite roof. Kai, however, cognizant of his brother's unusual amount of missteps that night, saw the threat. He dove just in time, pushing Kaito out of the way.

They went down in a jumble of limbs, skinned elbows and knees.

Kaito didn't see the blood drenching their tuxedo jackets until his momentary daze wore off and he tried to detangle himself from his brother and come up to hands and knees to take stock of the situation.

Kaito's face paled when he saw, smelled, felt the blood—repugnant, hot, sticky. His voice trembled along with his body as he whispered, "Kai… Oh, Kai…" in terror.

It was bad. They had maybe a few minutes before he bled out. And there was nothing Kaito could do. Not even applying pressure would help, so Kaito sat with him, held him, and watched in horror as the life drained from his confidant, his brother, his friend.

This was the price he paid for his carelessness.

But Kai smiled up at him, already looking gaunt and exhausted, like it was a Herculean task just to breathe. "Don't cry…Kai-chan," he pleaded, wiping the tears from Kaito's face. "It's my j-job…to die protecting you. I've fulfilled my purpose…. I'm h-happy to go in your…place."

"But I don't want to be left behind," Kaito whimpered, gently cupping Kai's cheek.

Another bullet whizzed past them, missing by a foot. Snake's goons had, thankfully, never been very good shots.

"I don't want you to go," Kaito whispered, blinking back tears.

Kai expended a tremendous amount of effort to shake his head. "You'll be okay…. B-Be okay and…and keep going for m-my sake…okay? I'm just…so glad that I got…t-to be with you…and fight by your side for…as long as I…"

Kai never finished that sentence.

And the body, not needing to be left behind as proof, vanished in a shimmer of green like lightning bugs.

…

The next three months were a blur during which Kaito didn't leave his room. The first thing he clearly remembered was the phone ringing. He picked it up, and Tantei-kun very awkwardly invited him out for coffee.

Things slowly returned to normal after that. There were times when Kaito sat staring blankly at the wall for days, but he always came out of it eventually, and as time went on, the bad spells diminished in duration and frequency, and soon there were heists once more with renewed determination.

And Kaito gained a friend and a partner in his fight against the Organization thanks to the episode of the Stone of Duplicity. Out of that loss came a bond with Conan. Kaito also gained one more reason to take those slimewads down. It strengthened his resolve and gave him the will to fight on…for both of their sakes.

…But still he kept the Stone of Duplicity in the Kid Cave, having deemed it too dangerous to set loose on the general public. He'd sent back a copy, and from time to time he'd touch the jewel, mentally calling out, hoping that one day…just maybe his brother would come back to him.

The

End

…

Mikau: As you may be aware, the contest limit is 5,000 words, so I did the best with the space I had. I really could have done better as far as character development goes if I'd had more words to work with. As things stand, I'm actually pretty happy with how this turned out considering I wrote it over the weekend, spur of the moment. Again, I hope you enjoyed it. ^.~


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